As Fulton County Schools forms governance councils for charter schools there are lessons to be learned from Marietta

Jennifer Rosenberg suspended her law practice nine years ago to stay home with her two daughters, but she never quite walked away from the practice of dispute resolution. For the past two years Rosenberg has been on the advisory council of Woodland Elementary in Sandy Springs trying to resolve matters such as: should students be required to wear uniforms?

It was only natural when Fulton County Schools was designated a charter district by the state this year and held elections this fall to form governance councils at the first 19 schools to transition to charters that she run for council at Woodland, said Rosenberg.

She was one of five parents and teachers elected at Woodland in December and among 95 elected district-wide. Over the next six months they’ll go through training before taking office in July and begin exerting their new-found power to shape budgets, approve strategic plans and participate in the hiring — but not the firing — of principals.

“It’s exciting,” says Rosenberg, who already has a few fixes in mind at the school that was a charter until the Fulton School Board denied its renewal in 2011. One idea is to make changes to the school budget so that the school’s science lab teacher can be paid as a teacher. Right now, said Rosenberg, the teacher’s salary is paid through the front office’s budget. That means she has to work part of the time in the front office — instead dedicating herself to teaching lab.

Fulton County Schools chief of innovation and strategy Ken Zeff said the governance councils are a vital piece in improving the district’s overall academic performance and closing the achievement gaps between high performing and low performing schools.

“We believe that we get better decisions when we decentralize and decisions are made closer to schools, closer to the teachers, the students and the parent,” he said. “The schools are best to design solutions for their own schools. The governance councils are the critical levers for change.”

When the councils assume office in July each will have 10 members. The five elected members (three parents or guardians with children enrolled at the school; and 2 teachers elected by school employees), will be joined by two school based-employees appointed by the principal, two community members nominated by the principal and confirmed by the council, and the principal, who has no vote.

Members have to clear background checks and will go through a seven-hour training session, which are scheduled to begin in January. Zeff said the training is needed to “professionalize” the councils so they can work together and understand what it takes to approve a budget, strategic plan, and pick a principal.

The councils must meet at least six times a year. Decisions are by majority vote, unless the group moves to implement innovative practices, which requires a two-third majority. But likely that’s not how the votes will go in practice, says Preston Howard, operations administrator for Marietta City Schools, which five years ago converted to a charter district.

“We found that it’s best if the council comes to a consensus, a unanimous vote,” said Howard. “You don’t want to present a divided front to the school board” which must approve governance council decisions. “When you’re divided there’s no incentive for the board to approve.”

Marietta is changing its procedures so principals no longer have a vote, the way Fulton’s governance council is set up. “It will increase the confidence of the council, so they can have more say and not be dominated,” said Howard. “Some were intimidated by the principal having a vote.”

There are lessons Fulton governance councils can learn from Marietta, said Howard. For instance, one council wanted to change the hours of its school to start earlier and get out earlier, so they would be more in sync with Cobb County schools. The board rejected the plan because it was too shortsighted, said Howard.